Rivers of Gold : The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan

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Summary: Another new and wonderful Hugh Thomas book to read
Review: No one interprets Hispanic history like Hugh Thomas, from his books on Spain and Cuba written 40 years ago to his recent book on the conquest of Latin America. This new book puts it into the fullest historical context, starting, as it should, with the triumphant reconquista of 1492. Thomas writes narrative history superbly well, and this book can be read equally by those with history degrees and those without. Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ, Carroll and Graf, 2004)

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Summary: Vastly Overrated
Review: Problems With The Book:
1) Way too much detail about minor characters, places, and customs which lead nowhere; where was the editor on this project?
2) Minor errors. For example on page 283 compare the text and map illustrating where Ponce de Leon first made landfall in Florida (hint: it wasn't near modern day Palm Beach). Also, on page 529, hurricanes being included among the disasters afflicting Seville; this has never happened.
3) Most egregiously, an incredibly hazy story line told dully with almost zero context.
I came away frustrated and extremely disappointed. I can't understand the rave reviews; this is a vastly overrated book.

Rating:
Summary: 5 stars for research, 3 stars for readability
Review: Rivers of Gold is thoroughly researched and documented, but at times the author loses sight of the forest for the trees. Several chapters are written in an engaging style, particularly those focusing on Columbus' arrival in the New World and the sections on Mesoamerican cultures. However (as is pointed out in other reviews), the author seems to dwell on accounting for everyone who had even the most minor role in the exploration of the Americas. It takes a while to navigate all these names, many of which merit one mention with no connection to later events or consequences. That said, Rivers of Gold is a useful text for serious students of this key historical period.

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Summary: Turgid and Overloaded
Review: The NY Times review (by the estimable Paul Kennedy) was such a rave that I rushed out and plunked down 35 large for this tome, having so loved Thomas's _The Conquest Of Mexico_. What I got was an occasionally interesting but mostly dull meander through useless minutiae of the early Spanish conquest (all those names!) without a sense of drama, of a story being told or even a point of view. Especially disappointing are Thomas's characterizations of the conquistadors. These courageous and villainous ruffians are among the most interesting figures in history and yet here they come off as inept one dimensional politicos. The final chapter, where one expects an author to pull everything together, is an off-topic historical portrait of Seville. It left me asking, what? This book would have been better at half the length.

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Summary: useless info overload
Review: thomas is very well educated and writes well. but, he uses so many proper names of people and places of unheard of people and places all interconnected. some sentences contain 4 proper names. he forgets what is so special and fascinating about the whole process of discovery of the americas for all the details. some people may want this? yould have to have a Ph D in latin american studies or catholicism!

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Summary: Pages of Pure Gold
Review: Thomas' journey through the early history of the Spanish Empire is fascinating and it is much more than the simple tale of the adventurers and sailors that first set the feet in the New World: Thomas' provides and impressive amount of information on the society of the Reinassance Spain: not only about the dinastic combinations and wars that unified the kigdoms of Spain and linked them to the Burgundian and Austrian royal families but also on the peoples that co-existed in Spain at the time, from poor moorish peasants to Italian traders, from Catholic bishops of Jewish origin to slaves from Africa, from empoverished hidalgos to soldiers of fortune. Thomas analyses the evolution of the State and the birth of the modern bureaucrathy. Only from this economic, social and ideological background can be understood the visionary trips of Columbus, the unfortunate and violent first settlements in the Caribbean and the heroic adventures of the conquest of Mexico and the circumnavigation of the Earth.
The approach of Thomas is honest and scientific. He analyses the historical facts according to the perspective of the time and supporting his views with an impressive amount of material not only from other historians but from documents of the Xv and XVI centuries.
Moreover, the book is rich (at least the Spanish edition, El Imperio Espanol) in extra materials such as maps, documents (3 annexes including the story of the first free African in America, a companion of Cortes that introduced the wheet in the continent) and notes.

To summ up: a great book